


that place between sleep and awake

by cryingaggressively



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s02e06 Tallahassee, F/M, Gen, Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 10:44:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15022895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cryingaggressively/pseuds/cryingaggressively
Summary: Hook needs to find Rumpelstiltskin for something more important than revenge. Emma doesn't leave him on the beanstalk.





	that place between sleep and awake

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from a quote by J.M.Barrie because I couldn't not.  
> To this day, I have only watched the first season of OUAT fully. I've watched the rest through clips on Youtube. So if you spot anything that's totally out of whack with canon, it's probably because of that, though I try to keep to canon by checking with the wiki. That said, I know this storyline has been done a lot, but I couldn't resist.  
> I hope you enjoy!

They halted.

 

"Let's see. You volunteered to come up here because you were the most motivated. You need to get back to a child."

 

Emma turned to him, adjusting her grip on the beanstalk. "That's not perception, that's eavesdropping."

 

"It's a powerful motivation, a child. You don't want to abandon him the way you were abandoned." He said it in a way clearly meant to taunt but didn't quite manage. He sounded almost sympathetic. Wistful.

 

Nonetheless, it struck its mark. "What's that?"

 

"Like I said," he went on, avoiding her eyes, "open book." He threw something at her that wasn't quite a smile.

 

"How would you know that?" she asked him, slightly out of breath.

 

"Spent many years in Neverland, home of the Lost Boys. They all share the same look in their eyes. The look you get when you've been left alone," he told her and seemed to stare right into her soul.

 

Uncomfortable, she tried to throw him off. "Yeah well, my world ain't Neverland." She looked up the beanstalk, trying to decide which path to take up.

 

"An orphan's an orphan." That was it, she started climbing again. Anything to get away from his bullshit.

 

He followed her lead, voice straining a bit with the effort. "Love has been all too rare in your life, hasn't it?"

 

She couldn't help it, she stopped again. He squinted at her. "Have you ever even been in love?"

 

Emma tried to shake the flood of memories that came to her. Warm brown eyes that crinkled at the corners, squishing onto the backseat of the back with someone, the sweet, sweet feeling of freedom. And the cold sound of a prison cell door slamming shut. She'd often wondered, again and again and again, had that been love?

 

But he didn't need to know, did he? So she tried her best to sound teasing, even challenging when she answered.

 

"No. I have never been in love."

 

They climbed on, silently at first, but it didn't take long before his mouth opened again.

 

"How old is he? Henry, was it?"

 

Emma looked at him with incredulity, hand gripping a loop in the beanstalk.

 

He smirked at her, way too cockily for her taste. "I'm very well practiced at listening in on private conversations. Comes in handy."

 

She snorted. "Comes in handy when you're trying to rob someone, you mean."

 

He shrugs. "Or if you are simply trying to acquire information."

 

Emma scrutinized him for a beat. It was a shame, she thought, that he was such an untrustworthy sleaze. He was nice to look at.

 

A fact that undoubtedly served him well as a criminal, she reminded herself.

 

"Ten."

 

"What?"

 

"Henry. He's ten. Now get a move on, we need to get that compass."

 

* * *

 

 

The shackle snapped into place and she hurried away from him.

 

"What are you doing?" He looked at his wrist. He sounded so confused, god. Emma felt sick as he got up and repeated himself, "What are you doing?"

 

"Hook, I -"

 

She looked away from his face. He was too earnest, his eyes too vulnerable. Emma realized that her breathing was loud, labored. her next breath was more controlled, while she tried to regain her composure.

 

"I, I can't-" she started, but was interrupted.

 

"Emma. Look at me." And she did, transfixed.

 

"Have I told you a lie?" He hadn't.

 

"I brought you here." He had.

 

"I risked my own safety to help you. The compass is in your hand, why do this to me now?" Well now, that was the question of the millennium, wasn't it? Her whole life story came to mind, as an answer.

 

She could have told him she didn't trust him, but in spite of her being, well, _her_ , that would have kind of been a lie. "I can't take the chance that I'm wrong about you."

 

Emma saw that he didn't quite get it but she'd already bared more telling him that than she'd wanted to.

 

"Sorry." She turned to leave, but held his gaze a moment too long.

 

"You're sorry?" His voice broke a bit and then, he was shouting at her, devastation gone and leaving only anger in place.

 

"You're sorry?! I got you here, I got you the compass!"

 

She stopped and turned back to him. "I got the compass." It was the truth, but the rebuttal sounded a bit weak, even to her own ears.

 

"You're just gonna leave me here to die? And that beast to eat me, to crush my bones?"

 

Emma could understand his anger – she would have felt the same – but that was untrue as well as unfair.

 

"He's not a beast," she bit out.

 

"And you're not gonna die," she added more softly. "I just need a headstart, that's all."

 

She turned to leave again, determined not to look back.

 

"Swan. SWAN!" She clenched her fits as she strode away, nails digging into her palms.

 

"Emma, please, listen!" Desperation clung to his every syllable, and she felt her resolve crumble.

 

"I have a daughter."

 

That stopped her dead in her tracks, ice creeping into her veins. This was what he had been hiding the whole time? It did fit his weird line of questioning while they had been climbing the beanstalk.

 

_Don't turn around_ , she told herself, _having a kid doesn't all of sudden make someone trustworthy._

 

"That's why I need to go to your land. When the Crocodile took my hand, he took her, too."

 

Emma squeezed her eyes shut for a second, couldn't help it as she relived the last weeks. Henry looking up at her with so much optimism through her doorway, as if she was the answer to all his problems. Henry laughing. Slapping an apple out of her hand. Confiding in her. Hugging her close.

 

What would she be capable of doing, if someone took her child?

 

He was calmer now; understandable, Emma acknowledged. She wasn't walking away from him anymore.

 

"I want to kill him, I do. But if she's alive–" his voice cracked and Emma turned around, heart clenching when she remembered those awful hours of Henry lying poisoned in a hospital bed.

 

"If she's alive and he returns her unharmed–" He hesitated, clearly struggling with the next part of his sentence (or surprised she was facing him again?).

 

"I won't kill him if you don't want me to."

 

She walked back to where he was shackled, eyes searching his face. He wasn't lying, she could tell – but what he was promising to do now and what would happen if he actually met Gold in Storybrooke... Those could be very different things. People said one thing and did the other, she'd learned that lesson very painfully.

 

"You're saying that now, Hook. How can I be sure you'll keep your word?" It came out less tough than she had intentioned and she hoped he didn't notice.

 

He looked at her, head inclined, and his words about her being an open book rang in her ears.

 

"You can't, I suppose. No one can. But try to think what will happen if you leave me here. You say the giant won't kill me, fine. I trust you're telling the truth."

 

From the looks of it, he was just as aware how ironic that was as she was.

 

"But what will happen when I get down from this beanstalk? More likely than not, Cora will try to kill me for betraying her. Any hope I had for getting to your land will be for naught then."

 

Well, sure, but wasn't it his fault for teaming up with Cora in the first place?

 

"It took decades for me to figure out a way to get her back. The Crocodile has dark magic and the ability to vanish on the spot. With her. If I didn't find a way to incapacitate him for good, he would have found us again."

 

She could imagine that it would be near impossible to find a way to do it, but decades? He looked her age; couldn't be more than thirty-five at most. But she couldn't detect even a hint of a lie.

 

Hook, she had to concede, was actually rather perceptive.

 

"I'm older than I look, love, " he told her wryly. "I've been on this cursed search for my daughter for nearly two-hundred years."

 

Her jaw almost hit the floor. But then she remembered which story Captain Hook was from.

 

"Neverland?" she wagered a guess.

 

"Aye," he confirmed, although he seemed surprised by the speed she'd figured it out, his eyebrows shooting up.

 

Emma tried to collect her thoughts.

 

"But if Gold, sorry, Rumpelstiltskin took her that long ago – wouldn't she already be..." she trailed off, not able to bring herself to finish the sentence.

 

Hook sighed. "If she'd aged at a normal rate, of course, but I wager he thinks that would have been too light of a punishment for me. And for all the wrongs he commits, the Crocodile doesn't kill children. Directly. He knew I'd find her if he'd just dropped her off somewhere to be raised by someone else. So he found a way to keep her unharmed but out of reach for me."

 

She almost saw the light bulb over her head turn on. "He put her under a sleeping curse and kept her with him?"

 

"That's the assumption. At least he told me–" Hook stopped abruptly.

 

"What did he tell you?" Emma probed him.

 

He pressed his lips together. "This is all rather personal. And a long story."

 

Emma crossed her arms, defiance rising up in her. "Look, buddy, either you tell me _everything_ or you're staying here."

 

She saw the wheel in his head turning furiously but it was obvious he came to the logical conclusion. He didn't have a choice.

 

"The Dark One told me he'd do the same thing to me I'd done to him – take my lover and break my family apart." Emma frowned. Hook noticed.

 

"Milah–" She recognized the name as the one he had tattooed on his arm. The amount of pain in his voice was staggering and for a second, she felt bad she was forcing him to tell this tale.

 

"Milah was the Crocodile's wife."

 

Emma couldn't help herself. "What?"

 

Hook didn't react, already wrapped up in his tale.

 

"I met her in a tavern. She told me how unhappy she was in her life. She was fascinated by the stories I could tell her, of all the people and places I had seen. We were only friends, in the beginning. When she asked me to take her with me, I obliged. He came to the ship the next day, following the rumors that a pirate had kidnapped her, and begged me to release her. I asked him to fight me for her, after insinuating she'd serve as the crew's... _amusement_ otherwise. He didn't even pick up the sword."

 

The distaste in his voice was palpable and it fit what else she knew of him. If what he'd told her had been true (and she was certain it was) he was one tenacious son of a bitch. He would have picked up the sword. He'd have tried to pick it up if all of his limbs were broken.

 

Hook stopped for a moment. It seemed like he was trying to decide where to continue.

 

"They had a son named Baelfire. Milah only left him behind because she knew Rumpelstiltskin loved him and would take good care of him."

 

Emma, still trying to digest that Hook's dead love had been Gold's wife, was stunned at the news of Gold having a kid.

 

"Years later, I stumbled into him after an evening at the tavern. Milah had stayed with our daughter on the Jolly Roger. After he'd revealed he'd become the Dark One, he asked after Milah. I told him she had died, to try to protect her and our daughter."

 

Hook swallowed. "He posed an ultimatum. Either I would duel him come morning or he'd kill both me and my crew. So I went back the next morning. He would have killed me, hadn't Milah followed me."

 

By now, it seemed unreal to Emma that that was the story of someone's actual life, dramatic and fantastical as it was. But it was hard to ignore how wrecked Hook was.

 

"She brokered a deal: our lives for a magic bean in our possession that the Dark One had been looking for. All seemed to go to plan. Then the two started to argue. He asked her how she could leave her son and when she told him she was sorry every day for it, our daughter made an ill-timed appearance on deck."

 

His voice had progressively gotten rougher and rougher and he visibly braced himself for the next part of the story.

 

"It escalated from there. He crushed Milah's heart –" She almost reached out to lay a hand on his arm, but didn't – "and grabbed our daughter by the arm. I tried to get him to free her with the bean I still held in my hand, but he didn't listen. He told me he'd do the exact same thing to me I'd done to him. That it was poetic justice, taking my lover from me and breaking my family apart. He said he'd keep my child nice and close, so I could never get to her, keep her in stasis by a curse only True Love could break. He said I'd die knowing she would never wake, die as the last person that loved her and could save her."

 

Hook tried but he couldn't hide the wetness in his eyes. Emma didn't blame him, with the size of the lump she had in her own throat.

 

He cleared his throat, then continued almost clinically. "When I refused to give him the bean unless he handed over my child, he cut off my hand, then disappeared. With my daughter."

 

At this point, Emma thought, she would probably be okay with watching Hook kill Rumpelstiltskin. How many people had been separated from their loved ones because of him? Wasn't it time for him to pay for his crimes?

 

But no. No matter what somebody had done, you didn't just go around killing people.

 

"He'd made a mistake – I assume he'd meant to take the hand with the bean inside. But he cut off the wrong one. I'm rather good at sleight of hand, you have to know."

He smiled weakly at that, the corners of his mouth lifting tiredly

"I still had the bean. His words rung in my head, that I'd die without a way to best him on my way to my daughter. But what if I had more time? I knew I could find a way to kill him eventually. I'd been to Neverland before, where boys stayed boys forever, so I used the bean to travel there. And I've been trying to find a way to get her back ever since," he closed his tale.

 

Emma stayed silent for a minute, not sure what to say. Hook, taking her silence for uncertainty about him, pressed his case further.

 

"I despise him, Swan. I hate him more than anyone I've hated in my life combined and I've had a long one. But I love my daughter more. If saving her means sparing his miserable life, so be it."

 

He stared at her with smoldering eyes, lips pressed into a fine line.

 

"I believe you," Emma finally told him, then sighed. "Don't make me regret this."

 

And she opened the shackle.

 

* * *

 

 

"But how do we get the ashes?" Mary Margaret asked into the round.

 

Hook, who had been staring into the fire, looked up. "Why don't we let Cora open the portal? I could go back to the bottom of the beanstalk with the compass, claim I'd grown tired of waiting for her. You lot hide near the lake and jump in after us. Once we arrive in your land, we overpower her."

 

Mulan scoffed. "Nice try, Hook. Anyone got a real idea?"

 

Emma hesitated, but then spoke up to defend him. "Actually, I don't think it's _that_ bad an idea."

 

They all looked at her surprised, but the worst offender was Hook himself. To Emma, it looked like his eyebrows were trying to melt into his hairline.

 

"Emma, are you okay?" Mary Margaret asked her, eyebrows knit together.

 

"Sheesh, yes. Look, he doesn't have anything to gain from leaving us behind, trust me." Hook, sitting opposite her in their little circle, looked at her in gratitude. He nodded at her once, a nod so small it must have been imperceptible for someone not looking for it.

 

"Yes, except gaining favour with Cora if he sells us out to her," Mulan said.

 

"If you don't betray me, I won't either," Hook told them, sullen but sedate.

 

Mary Margaret glared at him. "You do remember that you switched to our side as soon as it suited you? How are we supposed to believe you won't do the same to us?"

 

Hook leaned forward on his log, moving his legs so that one ankle rested on his knee.

 

"I've told you before, you make for far safer company. Cora is... Let's say desperation makes for strange bedfellows," he tried to defend himself.

 

"Yes, desperation to murder someone! How is that supposed to reassure us?" Aurora dished out.

 

Hook clicked his tongue. "As I've already told Emma–" he looked at her and Emma wasn't sure what emotion it was that flared up in her at that. "I'm willing to let go of that. My goal is to go to the Land Without Magic. Anything else is of marginal importance."

 

Mulan eyed him, suspicious. "So why do you still want to go there if not for the Dark One?"

 

Hook struggled with the answer. Emma asked herself why he didn't just tell them, but then, had she ever told anyone her whole story with Neal? She couldn't bring herself to do it even once, didn't want to see the pitying stares for a seventeen-year-old kid pregnant in prison. Telling it twice in a row would have been pure horror.

But there was no way around it; they would keep being suspicious of his motivations if he kept them a secret.

 

"Hook." He turned his head from Mulan back to her. "Tell them." Their eyes met over the fire and again, Emma would have been hard pressed to explain what she was feeling. She only knew it made her feel far too vulnerable.

 

Nonetheless, Hook was the one to break the contact first, uncrossing his legs and staring at the forest floor instead.

 

"Rumpelstiltskin took my daughter, a long time ago." Aurora gasped. Mulan and Mary Margaret on the other hand were still glaring at Hook, though they'd lost their edge a bit.

 

"From what he told me, I gather he put her under a Sleeping Curse and kept her in his proximity. So in all likelihood, she is in Storybrooke, taken there by the curse," Hook went on, staring into the fire. It was different from when he'd told her up on the beanstalk, his voice almost robotic. Emma wondered if it was because of the larger audience.

 

"Preferably, I'd kill him," he conceded, his tone a weird mix of joke and murder. "But I just want to get her back. I have no grievances against you and I only allied with Cora because she had a way to your land. So perhaps if you'd consider my being sincere, this could all be done with rather sooner than later," Hook ended wryly.

 

There was a long pause.

 

"Well," Mulan said awkwardly and now Emma could get behind Hook's reluctance to share. This abrupt change from open hostility to pity was excruciating.

 

"The thing is," her mother threw in, getting them back on track, "even if you were the most trustworthy person in the world: we don't want Cora in Storybrooke. It would be different if there still was no magic–" at that, Hook sucked a breath in – "but Cora _with_ her magic? Dealing with Regina will be complicated enough without her."

 

"We'd need a way to hold her back, then, but her magic makes that rather difficult," Hook mused.

 

Another silence ensued as they all did their best to come up with a plan.

 

"Well," Mary Margaret started, "there is a way to secure magic-users. We held Rumpelstiltskin in a magic-proof cell in our castle before the curse."

 

Hook cocked an eyebrow at that, the corners of his mouth drawing down.

 

"Sounds perfect, but how are we supposed to get her in there?" Emma asked. "She's not just going to jump into it."

 

"You don't have any more Poppy Dust, do you, Mulan?" Aurora asked.

 

"No," Mulan answered, chagrined.

 

"And you can't make any more?" Emma pressed her.

 

"I could, but the poppies are rare in this kingdom. I know where we might find some but do you think it'll work on her?"

 

"Even in absence of a heart, Cora is human. If it can knock out a giant, it should work on her, shouldn't it?"

 

"And what will you do if it doesn't?" Mulan barbed under her breath. Hook, to his credit, didn't rise to the bait.

 

"It might work," Mary Margaret reckoned. "But for how long? We'd still need to be near the castle."

 

"If we had enough, couldn't we just keep on dosing her?" Emma wondered out loud.

 

"I guess so?" Mulan said.

 

Emma sat still for a moment, thinking, then looked up at Hook. "When were you supposed to meet Cora?"

 

Hook looked to the sun that was steadily disappearing on the horizon. "In about four hours, I'd say."

 

"That's not enough time," Mulan told them, stressed out.

 

Hook pursed his lips, drumming his fingers on his knee. "What if I distract her while the rest of you go procure more of the powder? I could tell her that you'd gotten away with the compass but had accidentally revealed where you'd go next. Which will be a location near the castle, of course. Cora will need to find you for the compass, and by then you'll have the Poppy Dust."

 

The other three women were still skeptical.

 

"Again, there's this thing with trust? How do we know you won't tell Cora where we really are before we can get the Poppy Dust?" Mary Margaret questioned.

 

It was clear to Emma Hook was a hair's breadth away from losing it. And she couldn't really fault him if he did; the situation would have frustrated her as well. On the other hand, hadn't she been just as wary of him only a few short hours before? The others were making points that were common sense by their experiences with him.

 

Hook groaned. "Can you recall telling me where exactly it is you plan on finding those plants? Because you haven't. Don't tell me. It is that simple."

 

There was no argument to be made against that, but Emma had a different problem with the plan.

 

"You told me Cora would probably try to kill you if you came back without the compass."

 

He looked at her, face blank. "I did. What's your point, Swan?"

 

He hadn't been lying. Not on the beanstalk, and despite the mask he'd arranged his face in, she could see a bit of apprehension even now.

 

"The plan won't work if you're dead," she told him, trying not to sound like she'd be upset about that.

 

Hook looked like the cat that ate the canary, but didn't make the remark she was afraid of.

 

"I won't be, if I can help it. And I can. I've survived worse than an irate Cora. It'll take a fair bit of convincing her, but it will work."

 

Mary Margaret's eyes darted back and forth between the two of them while she tapped her lip with her pointer finger. "What about your heart?"

 

Hook's head turned around so fast that Emma was expecting to hear a snap. "Pardon me?"

 

Emma's herself felt felt like she'd been caught with her hands in the metaphorical cookie jar, her own heart pounding in her chest.

 

Mary Margaret looked at both of them strangely. "You've noticed Cora can rip out people's hearts, right?"

 

A sharp pang of relief flooded through Emma and the muscle Hook's jaw stopped jumping.

 

"What if she decides to take it out, if you don't do a good enough job of convincing her? We're all screwed then, but especially you, Hook."

 

He picked the nervous movement of his fingers back up, drumming staccato on his leg. She could see his tongue poking at the inside his cheek while he stared absentmindedly into the fire.

 

"What if that wasn't a concern?"

 

Mulan snorted. "What, you don't have a heart anyway?"

 

She got back a dirty look. "I do, thank you very much, but I know a way to remove it."

 

Aurora eyed him with distrust again, crossing her arms.

 

Emma felt sick. Hours ago, he'd told her how the woman he'd loved had died, her heart crushed by someone with dark magic, and now he was ready to pull his own out, for a plan with people who distrusted him? It stank of desperation and it wasn't really her thing to take advantage of that.

 

"I met Cora when I was sent to kill her," he started to explain. He didn't let himself be irritated by the way Mulan muttered 'surprise, surprise' under her breath.

 

"The Evil Queen had poured a potion onto my hook, enabling it to remove one heart. I tried to use it on Cora, as was the plan, but it didn't work. She hasn't kept it in her chest for years. So, by all means, the spell should still be intact," Hook concluded.

 

"You want to pull your heart out?" Mary Margaret asked him, astonished.

 

Hook shrugged. "It would be the easiest solution."

 

"And what would you do with it? Hide it?" Aurora asked curiously.

 

That was a step too far, Emma thought. "We can't do that, what if we don't have the opportunity to go back for it?"

 

Hook nodded, humming in agreement. "I actually thought you'd take it with you. I'm surprised you didn't suggest it yourselves," he told them, gaze wandering once across all of their faces, "that way, you get the control over me you so desperately seem to crave and it gives me a certain security in return."

 

Beneath the manic look that had taken residence on his face, there was a shadow of fear. It dawned on Emma that Hook wanted to avoid the same thing as Mary Margaret – him being controlled by Cora. And wouldn't she rather know her heart in the hands of a bunch of princesses than that of an evil witch? Still, to him, them having his heart was dangerous. "In what way does that give you security?"

 

But Mary Margaret seemed to have caught on to his reasoning. "If she does get suspicious and tries to remove his heart and it's not there... I don't know you, Hook, but I'd say you don't usually put your trust in people – " she threw Emma and him a suspicious glance – "so Cora will think someone took it by force. She's a piece of work, but I don't think she'd kill him for that."

 

Hook nodded, satisfied, and told her, "My thoughts exactly."

 

After a short pause, Mulan asked what they'd all been thinking, "And you're willing to trust us why exactly?"

 

It was Mary Margaret who answered before he could, having registered the uncomfortable look on his face.

 

"That's his business, isn't it? What matters is that we _do_ trust each other," she admonished, looking a few seconds at each of them.

 

They all nodded, slightly terrified of her sudden intensity.

 

Hook clicked his tongue. "Let's get on with it then, shall we?" He gestured towards his chest.

 

"But you said you were supposed to meet her in four hours! Wouldn't you rather keep it in until then?" Emma knew she would prefer it that way.

 

He shrugged. "That was a rough estimate and I'd rather not have Cora catch me coming towards the beanstalk."

 

He twisted the hook out of its brace and held it out in front of him. "So. Who of you ladies will steal my heart?" he asked salaciously and with such _fake_ cheer that Emma felt a wave of unwelcome concern for him.

 

None of the others said something, all of them staring at the hook like it was contaminated. _It is,_ Emma thought, _with dark magic that can fucking rip someone's heart out._

 

Hook, as much as he tried to hide it, looked apprehensive.

 

"I'll do it," she said abruptly and got up to grab the hook from him. It was heavier than she remembered; cool against her hand, it made her hand sag a bit before she adjusted her grip.

 

"I was hoping it would be you," he repeated his own words from earlier, but this time not with a smarmy grin but an uneasy smile. It made him look so different; less like a rogue and curiously boyish.

 

Emma let out a heavy breath. "Let's get it over with."

 

Hook nodded, then stood up. She bit her lip. "And I just, what, dig it into your chest?"

 

Next to them, Mary Margaret gave a firm, "Exactly."

 

Bracing herself, she decided not to give him a warning. That had always made stuff like shots or ripping off band-aids worse for her. Tip first, she shoved the hook where she estimated his heart to be in one determined motion.

 

It felt weird; there was much less resistance than there should have been, shoving an only semi-sharp hook through a grown man's ribs. Hook gasped as the metal pierced his body, and for a moment, she was worried something had gone wrong, that she'd just killed him. But Hook, through his heavy breaths, nodded at her.

 

"Pull it...pull it out," he commanded. Emma did as he said – and almost dropped the hook and the goddamn heart it had pulled out. Clumsily, she caught it with both hands, then held it carefully as the hook dumped onto the ground.

 

It was warm, almost hot and it throbbed in her hands, fast. The heart was bright red and emitted a soft glow, but in its depth, she could see a black patch swirling in the rhythm of its beat.

 

Hook, who was still recovering from the ordeal, frowned and put his hand over the place where his heart was supposed to be.

 

"Does it hurt?" Emma asked him, not able to keep blanket the tinge of guilt in her voice.

 

He drew his eyebrows together, pensive, and rubbed little circles on his chest. "It doesn't, it just feels... strange. Sort of empty."

 

Mulan grinned slightly at him. "Much less black than I expected, pirate."

 

Hook scoffed, but Emma could see his eyes dart to his heart, staring at it before he turned his head back to Emma. The scowl softened as he told her, "I better get going, then. Take care with that, will you, Swan?"

 

She knew her voice would be way too soft when it came out, but she couldn't help it. "It's safe with me. I promise."

 

The heart in her hands sped up.

 

* * *

 

 

The crazy thing was, the plan worked. There were close calls – when Cora found them, for example, at the spot they'd chosen to be "ambushed" at. She figured out quickly that Hook had chosen them over her.

 

When she angrily groped into his chest and found nothing, she gave a manic burst of laughter. "Oh, the enchantment on your hook still worked, then?"

 

She smirked at him. Evilly, Emma thought. "Haven't you learned anything, Captain? Losing your heart always ends in pain."

 

At that, Cora looked straight at Emma, who wondered if she could somehow sense that she was the one schlepping Hook's heart around with her.

 

Cora reached her hand out and the bag around Emma started heavily tugging at her shoulder into her direction. In fact, its drag on her was so hard that Emma stumbled forward, desperately trying to hold onto it.

 

"Good thing he won't, then," Emma told her, doing her best to look at her instead of behind her. Cora wrinkled her forehead, opening her mouth to reply, but was hit in the face with a huge cloud of Poppy Dust before she could. Her eyes crossed before she sacked to the ground, freeing the view of Aurora standing behind her.

 

"I think it worked," Aurora said, lightly kicking Cora's arm with her dainty little foot.

 

Behind Emma, Hook snorted. "I'd say so, lass."

 

He turned to Emma. "Well. Care to do the honors, love?" he asked her, fingers tapping his chest.

 

She nodded, reaching down into his satchel at her side and pulled his heart out. She gave it a thorough look, making sure Cora hadn't damaged it somehow with her summoning magic thing. It looked the same. Red, glowy. Dark, swirly thing inside.

 

Hook stepped closer to her, so close that she could count his lashes. If she had wanted to, that was.

 

"Cora was right about one thing. That is not the way I prefer to lose my heart to a wo–"

 

But Emma, flustered despite herself by the implications of his statement and his cheeky smile and his stupid, _stupid_ long lashes, chose that exact moment to shove his heart into his chest.

 

Hook winced and Emma, terrified, didn't move a muscle. She calmed when she could feel his heart beat under her palm. But then realized why she could feel it; her hand was still flat on his chest, her fingertips grazing the hair peeking out of his shirt. She looked up at his face to find him staring at her hand, the appendage small and pale against the mass of black leather he ran around in.

 

With a jolt, she noticed she could hear her own heartbeat _race_ in her ears, in the same rapid tempo as the one under her fingers. It was too much, way too much, and she pulled away from him like she'd been burnt.

 

"There, good as new."

 

He continued looking at her, blue eyes boring into hers. "I don't know about that, Swan. It might be a bit worse for the wear."

 

Emma opened her mouth, but what could she say in return, really? Hook seemed to sense her uneasiness and turned to look at Cora's unconscious form.

 

"Well. I suppose I'll have to carry her?"

 

Mulan, sheathing her sword, came over to them. "I can carry her, too –"

 

He stopped her with a wave of his hand. "Don't trouble yourself, it's fine. You can take over, should I tire?"

 

Mulan nodded at him, appeased. Emma suspected there would be no taking over. They weren't that far from the castle and he seemed to be really into this whole chivalrous manners thing

 

As it turned out, she was right. Hook ended up carrying Cora the whole way, denying all offers from them to take her. (His shoulders had to be _aching_. Men.)

 

The poppy poweder worked, only one more dose on the way needed to keep her asleep. They reached the cell without further complications.

 

They all searched it, but Mary Margaret was the one who inspected it the most thoroughly, scanning every wall and corner for any changes. All that they found was a piece of parchment with Emma's name written all over it and an empty inkwell.

 

"Wow. That's not creepy at all," Emma remarked, staring at the parchment.

 

Hook eyed it with distaste. "The Dark One must have left it, then?" he asked, addressing Snow, who nodded.

 

"He wanted to know your name, in exchange for telling me about the curse. It must have something to do with it," she guessed.

 

"One would think a powerful, immortal magical being wouldn't need to write a four-letter-name down three hundred times to remember it," Hook grumbled.

 

Snow next to him grabbed his forearm abruptly, as if in realization, and he gave a jolt.

 

"But that's what this is! He wanted to remember Emma's name during the curse, because she's the savior!" Snow exclaimed.

 

"Yes, but how would writing it down until the bloody inkwell was empty – unless...?"

 

Snow stared at him, then at the parchment. "Squid ink? It's a definite possibility. We better take that with us."

 

"Can somebody explain what is going on?" Emma asked them.

 

"Squid ink is magical. The Dark One might have tried to use it to remember your name and we shouldn't leave it here with Cora. It's too powerful," Mulan summarized.

 

* * *

 

 

Later, they were staring at the compass and the ashes they took from Cora.

 

"What now?" Mary Margaret asked into the round.

 

"They're ashes. Doesn't everything work better when it's not burnt to a crisp?" Mulan retuned wryly.

 

"How do you want to turn a pile of ash back into a tree?" Emma asked her, fingers of one hand messaging her temple.

 

Aurora shrugged. "You always forget about the magic we have in our realm."

 

"So what, we search for a fountain of youth for magic trees? That's a bit specific, isn't it?" How many more things would they have to search for? Eighty-nine? When was she going to be back with Henry? (And back to normal food and indoor plumbing.)

 

"No, something with general restorative powers, I'd imagine -" Hook was cut off by Mary Margaret's gasp.

 

"Lake Nostos!"

 

"Lake what now?"

 

"The waters of Lake Nostos have regenerative powers!"

 

* * *

 

 

Emma would be happy to never dig in her life _again._ Every fibre of her body was aching with exertion. But finally, _finally_ there was a tiny pool of wetness in the sand.

 

"I guess this is it," she said, looking at Aurora and Mulan.

 

"Thank you. For everything," her mother told them, hugging each of them.

 

Mulan patted her back. "I'm glad we could help you with getting back to your family."

 

Emma was a bit taken aback when Aurora hugged her, but returned the embrace nonetheless.

 

"Thanks for all your help," she  mumbled while the princess squished her.

 

"It was a pleasure." Emma sincerely doubted that, but didn't say anything.

 

Mulan, on the other hand, had a last piece of advice when they hugged each other. "I'd keep an eye on him, if I were you," she mumbled into Emma's ear.

 

"You still think he's going to kill us or something?" It was an unusual development for her, but Emma didn't really distrust Hook anymore. He'd certainly put his trust in them, so she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

Mulan snorted. "No. But I think he's interested in getting under your skirts, if you catch my meaning."

 

 

Emma was still blushing when they jumped through the portal.


End file.
